‘Turnaccommodatie Nieuw Welgelegen’ (TNW) by NL Architects is a sports hall dedicated soley to gymnastics.
Four individual gymnastic clubs will combine their efforts in this new facility. The project based on the idea of a ‘tulip’ TNW is the 3rd last building of the redevelopment of a sports complex in the center of Utrecht.
The brief for the TNW excluded the possibility of creating windows in the hall. In order to be ‘livable’, daylight is required, but for serious training and competitions windows will cause undesired effects – too much contrast and too much distraction.
The idea of tulip is to ‘peel off’ the skin at the top to bring daylight into the interior. By partly bending out the facade a gap comes into being between the roof edge and the walls: indirect light will reflect into the hall. The carefully deformed envelop creates a mildly glowing gradient that lights up towards the top.
A pleasant side effect of bending out the facade is that the building becomes sculptural.
Turnaccommodatie Nieuw Welgelegen (TNW)
Competition: 1st prize
Client: dienst maatschappelijke ontwikkeling gemeente utrecht
Team: Bobby de Graaf, Sarah Moller, Michael Schoner, Gen Yamamoto,
Rebecca Eng, Joanna Janota, Jeong Jun Song
